Maine hoop star quits Vermont

SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine — A Maine high school basketball star who spent a semester at Gonzaga University and then transferred to the University of Vermont is back home in South Portland.

Keegan Hyland’s father Tom tells the Portland Press Herald his son has left the Burlington school.

Keegan Hyland left Gonzaga in Spokane, Wash., to be closer to home after it was clear injuries would keep him from playing much. His first semester at Gonzaga was injury-plagued, first a knee problem and then a concussion suffered just before the team’s first game of the season.

Hyland was a freshman guard. He had become South Portland’s careeer scoring leader in barely three seasons; his senior year was limited to three games due to a stress fracture of his left pelvic bone.

After initially giving a verbal commitment to Vermont during his senior year, he changed course and was set to attend prep school for the 2010-11 year. But sometime last spring Gonzaga needed a shooting guard, and Hyland had a stellar reputation both on the high school and AAU levels so an assistant coach for the Bulldogs flew cross-country to work out the Pine Tree State phenom. A scholarship offer soon followed.

There’s no word what prompted Hyland to leave Vermont.

If Hyland accepts a scholarship at another Division 1 program he will be required to sit out two semesters before he will be eligible to play.